A novel miniaturised atmospheric aerosol satellite instrument: developing a small form factor multi-angle spectropolarimeter

气溶胶是大气中的微小颗粒，通过几种途径影响我们的气候和健康。这些途径包括直接辐射强迫(通过散射传入的太阳辐射进行降温或通过捕获传出的红外辐射来加热)、间接辐射强迫(影响云层特性)以及通过吸入对人体健康造成不利影响。我们对全球大气气溶胶的类型和范围的了解存在很大的不确定性，需要更多的数据，配备微型气溶胶仪器的卫星星座可以通过新的空间平台带来更高的分辨率和更大的覆盖范围，从而对更大的飞行任务起到补充作用。小型化是整个地球观测技术发展的一项重要努力[3]。泰利斯·阿莱尼亚空间英国有限公司(TAS-UK)和莱斯特大学在空间技术开发方面有着长期的合作记录，例如在新的微型空气质量仪器的概念方面[4]。该博士将应用仪器和数据处理相结合的开发方法来支持TAS-UK多角度偏振仪(MAP)仪器的优化[5]，用于小型化的气溶胶聚焦任务。

Aerosols, tiny particles in the atmosphere, impact our climate [1] and our health [2] through several pathways. These pathways include direct radiative forcing (cooling through scattering of incoming solar radiation or heating through trapping of outgoing infrared radiation), indirect radiative forcing (influencing cloud properties), and adversely effecting human health through inhalation. There are large uncertainties on our understanding of type and extent of atmospheric aerosol globally, and more data are needed and constellations of satellites with miniaturised aerosol instruments can complement larger missions by bringing higher resolution and greater coverage accessible through New Space platforms. Miniaturisation is an important effort across Earth observation technology development [3]. Thales Alenia Space UK Ltd (TAS-UK) and University of Leicester have a long track record of collaboration on space technology development, for example in concepts for new miniature air quality instruments [4]. This PhD will apply a combined instrumentation and data processing development approach to underpin optimisation of the TAS-UK Multi-Angle Polarimeter (MAP) instrument [5] for miniaturised aerosol-focused missions.